Coyote Design, Boise, New Product Development

Coyote Design is a company based in Boise, Idaho that designs, tests and manufactures components used in the fabrication of orthotics and prosthetics. The father and son founders of the company, Dale and Matt Perkins, are both amputees that had struggled to achieve their athletic dreams due to lack of product quality and variety.

The company is led by Matt Perkins who through focus, determination, hard work and desire became a world-class alpine skier and triathlete. Coyote Design uses those same traits to develop P&O devices that are, in Matt’s words, “low tech, high function and affordable”. Coyote is committed to improving the quality of life of a wide range of orthotic and prosthetic wearers around the world through research, development, and construction of innovative, high functioning, reliable, and quality products.

Existing Situation:

Over the years, Coyote developed a close working relationship with TechHelp’s New Product Development Team in the areas of product design, prototyping, testing and manufacturing. As Coyote grew, the company began to receive product inquiries from around the globe. Market research had shown that the true market for Coyote’s products was “The World”. In order to maximize the effectiveness of Coyote’s small team, Matt decided to participate in Idaho’s ExporTech Program to develop a proactive way to identify and enter profitable export markets.

Dale Perkins (left) and Matt Perkins, CEO and president of Coyote Design and Rehab Systems.

Solution:

Coyote applied for and was accepted into Idaho’s highly competitive ExporTech program based on its successful line of products and its potential for worldwide sales. Coyote’s ExporTech team consisted of Matt along with staff responsible for international orders and shipping. Coyote was paired with a coach from the Idaho District Export Council and an intern from Boise State University. The team would have three months to research export opportunities and create an action plan for entering its most promising markets. The Coyote team used the ExporTech process to narrow the field to Germany, India & Taiwan. They then chose to focus first on Germany, a large market with a good healthcare program and some solid distributors.

Survey Impact & Other Results:

Coyote negotiated a distribution agreement and implemented a marketing strategy with a German company that offered complimentary products .

Coyote’s European expansion helped the company continue 15 consecutive years of growth and 94% growth in sales volume since 2006.

In addition to Germany, Coyote has expanded to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Japan, The Netherlands and Spain and created a network of distributors in 12 countries.

The company toured Cuba’s orthotic and prosthetic industry in early 2015 and is exploring opportunities.

The company has grown from a handful of employees to 19 people.

Coyote outgrew its 6,000 sq ft facility and will move in June of 2015 to a plant that is nearly twice as large.

Coyote is bringing more development work in-house so it can get winning products to market faster.

Coyote is taking more control of its manufacturing process by adding equipment needed to make small quantities of components.

Matt is adding 3-D printing capabilities that he believes will be key to the manufacturer of prosthetics in the future.

Ideally all amputees everywhere should have access to the best possible options. That is not realistic. We have focused on creating extremely high functioning prosthetics using less expensive and lower tech methods and we plan to continue development in this area. We would like to develop methods that apply to folks with limited funds in this country and throughout the world.Matt Perkins, Alpha Dog, Coyote Design